Star Wars: Rogues of the Old Republic (ROTOR)

We're not republic. We're not empire. We're the other guys.

Fa'ali'i Means Rage

It has been a little while — too long again, so my recap will be weak.

When the Rogues tried to leave coruscant their ship was taken over remotely and autopilored into another hangar area, where a powerful gang — the Takuza syndicate — would like to collect on a debt they feel Yaziro owes to them. Their agents had been tracking the Rogues’ movements in the Jedi temple and had agents rig the ship’s autopilot to bring them to the Takuza when they returned.

The Takuza had a mission for Yaziro to complete to pay back the debt he owes — for the theft of the original Ample bounty.

The mission is to go to Nar Shaddaa and collect a large crate from an agent, then go to a planet deep in the un-claimed outer rim and make the delivery. The world they are meant to make the delivery on is called Fa’ali’i.

The Rogues went to Nar Shaddaa, and tried to arrange a meeting with , Tralli Wesh the impossible Hutt jedi. They were instead attacked, and they never managed to connect with Tralli. The nameless assassin that led the atttack on them escaped.

The rogues collected their cargo and made their way to Fa’ali’i.

Fa’ali’i turns out to be, predictably, a planet that is simply drenched in the power of the dark side of the force. Much of the surface is roiling magma, but on one continent of exposed rock a small town surrounds an ancient temple of a lost, force-active race.

The rogues landed, posing as anyone other than themselves, and tried to make the delivery. They scouted around in the town a little, finding it mostly full of Sith operatives and the sort of prospectors and businessmen who would seek their fortune in such a dangerous, dark place.

The cargo was delivered to the temple, but the Rogues were not able to go in as a group. A scout did manage to go in and get a peek inside, where they saw an inner temple, with an altar, and kneeling in meditation before the altar they saw Serrata.

The session opened with the Rogues on Coruscant, having been able to get into the Jedi enclave’s shipyard and compound thanks to Russo’s connections and passcodes.

Once there, they borrowed a cargo hauler to try to sell their cargo of cybernetic implant parts, but in an initial foray into the markets they found no customers, but Yaziro did spot someone taking an unnatural interest in him, despite his efforts to be discrete (basically a sun bonnet tied down around his ears).

The rogues retreated back to the Jedi compound and decided to spend the rest of the day seeing what they could learn in the library.

Simone took the lead on the research efforts and first started to research her father, who she has been told was killed on the day the compound was attacked by the Sith. She found traces of information that led her to believe that this might have been faked, and that at least some Jedi were suspicious of him, were having him watched and monitored carefully in the days leading up to the attack.

Simone also did some research on the current situation in the council. Russo had offered a few light details, but nothing that really gave them a good lay of the land. So she started to dig.

What she discovered was that the Jedi council is currently divided between two extreme positions. The Bastion are jedi who favor a conservative, defensive stance, calling back Jedi from the far flung worlds and rebuilding their central strength.

The Silver League are jedi who favor a more aggressive, offensive stance, actively reaching out to counter Sith advances in neutral territory and working to make new alliances and stem the growth of the Sith empire at every opportunity.

Marelis Cotthils visited with the Rogues in their suite in the Jedi Spire, and she expressed her opinion that the Relics in the party’s possession — The Alva Focus and Vengor’s Charm, should be placed in the custody of the Jedi Council for safe keeping — they’re far too dangerous out in the space lanes. The Council knows thatFandutton and his followers have the other three relics now (the last, the Bell of Brakin was recovered recently), and it’s only by great good luck that these last two items remain out of Fandutton’s hands.

This presents a particular problem for the Rogues: Vengor’s Charm is an integral part of P5 — his personality is a combination of the faulty circuits in his system and mysterious influence of the relic. Remove the relic, and it’s believed that P5’s Sith Murderbot programming would restore itself.

Cotthils placed the Rogues under house arrest, temporarily, while waiting for a final decision of the Jedi Council.

That night, Simone bonded through the force with the Alva focus; she discovered a personality in there that she could communicate with, one that ached to be reunited with the rest of her “brothers”. When Simone explained that the Vengor Charm was nearby, the focus begged to be merged.

Simone broke the connection with the Focus and then made contact with the charm. The charm was clearly a darker influence, but it also wanted to connect with the focus, and begged to be connected.

In the end, after a lot of debate, Simone connected the two relics without removing the Charm from it’s connection with P5. This caused a major disturbance in the force, felt by Jedi throughout the spire.

This brought in the Jedi guards, but they failed to figure out what was going on, and became fixated on the fact that Yaziro had snuck out through ventilation ducts to find breakfast.

Having talked down the guards, the rogues were able to go to bed.

The next day, through a series of meetings with key members of the council and serious, devious plotting (P5 appears to be much more devious now that the Focus and Charm have been combined), they managed to arrange to convince the jedi Council to overrule Cotthils and send the relics off with the rogues, under the watchful gaze of Russo and another Jedi Master, Norlina Acketol , who had been unaligned with the two factions but whose influence on the unaligned voters was critical in overthrowing Cotthils.

The rogues have agreed to take on two missions:

Find the home world of the slaves and ensure that they are free of further oppression at the hands of Skrump and the Quarrans

Find the Hutt claiming to be a jedi and bring her back to the Jedi Council for examination

And a unspoken mission, taken on by Russo for his mentor Scar -

Find and recover the three remaining relics.

Cash earned: NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
Cybernetic parts (4 Units Worth = Base value $8,000, but these are high demand items, so they can be sold for $16,000)

The rogues manage to escape from the underwater complex, with a Quarran technician as their prisoner/informant/new ally. They did manage to scoop up Russo at the last moment and save him as well — he apparently was able to wound Serrata badly in their encounter, but not kill him.

Cash earned: NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
Cybernetic parts (4 Units Worth = Base value $8,000, but these are high demand items, so they can be sold for $16,000)

This recap will be pretty thin, and it needs to advance the story two sessions. Maybe it’s just one session — there was an abortive session in there where we didn’t really play, etc. But here’s the important bits of happened:

Rogues traveled on Skrump’s Pride to the unknown planet where the demonstration would take place.

Skurmp insisted on a meeting with the Rogues to ask them to drug Russo so that he would be impaired in his battle with the Janissaries, the name they’re using for the Cyborg Slaves.

The Rogues agreed to drug him. Then, when it was time to do so, they pulled a switch.

Russo performed well in the early demos. The janissaries were tough, but Russo defeated small groups, and the demonstration continued to ramp up the challenge.

During a break, in the staging area and infirmary beneath the Arena, the Rogues gave up any pretense of working on Skrump’s side, and using control pads in the staging area turned the janissaries into a rearguard that would hold their position against opponents.

Quarran security started flooding parts of the station to cut off escape.

Russo tried to make an escape, heading for the Western ship platform, where it was till possible to go thanks to a path of unflooded passages.

There Russo discovered that it was a trap, and Serrata was waiting there for him.

The Rogues start the session in the Area staging area, where the Janissaries will still hold the position for them for the time being, but the station is on alert. There are some possible goals:

Go to the eastern Platform, where the slaver ship is, and slice the ship’s navigational computer to determine where the slaves are coming from.

Go to the Slave Holding area to try to commuicate with and perhaps free the slaves.

Go to the Janissary barracks area, and try to decommission or even take over the Janissaries on the station

Go to the Southern docking platform and steal a freighter and escape.

What will they do?

Cash earned: NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
Cargo on the Ample bounty was lost when the ship was captured

The Rogues had been tracking the Bloody Dozen, the gamorrean gang that had been the muscle on the raid that interfered with Jatha’s big deal with the resistance in the previous session. While following, the saw the Dozen get a data padd via a messenger, and then arm up and head out.

The Rogues followed and were on hand when the Dozen tried to ambush a Jedi in the middle of a park. They joined into the fun, and made new, if tentative friend in Russo, a Chiss Jedi. Russo’s mission on Nar Shaddaa dovetailed nicely with the Rogues’ interest in damaging Skrump’s business, and so they decided to join forces.

The rogues, however, never like telling the truth when a lie will suffice. They managed to use Goggy’s object reading ability to determine that the data padd that had given the Gamorreans the information to attack Russo had been owned by one Khimbe Vob, manager of Skrump’s flagship casino.

The Rogues (claiming to be a part of the The Red Mist) reached out to him, claiming to be able to deliver on the mission that the Bloody Dozen failed on, and to deliver Russo to him.

After a communication channel was established, and negotiations could be handled, it was agreed that:

Vob would demonstrate good will by clearing the names of the Rogues who were wanted by the Nar Shaddaa authorities

The Rogues would bring Russo as a prisoner to the Casino

The rogues will travel with the Skrump entourage and other guests to an off-world site for a demonstration of a new slave army’s soldiers

Russo will become a prime attraction in that demonstration

Once the slave soliders have killed Russo, the Skrump organzation will arrange for the return of the Ample Bounty to the rogues.

The deal, so far, as gone as advertised. The Rogues were no longer being sought by the Nar Shaddaa authorities (although when the arrived at the casino there were certainly a LOT of Nar Shaddaa security forces watching the casino from outside, and they were paying very direct attention to the rogues). They were put up for the night in the casino, and the next day they were allowed to board a cruise liner taking Skrumps’s potential customers to the viewing of the exciting new breed of slaves he wants to show off.

There were, however, some wrinkles.

A Sith general (name later, don’t have my notes) and his entourage is one of the customer groups also on the ship

An independent outer rim warlord (name later), and his entourage, is another customer.

Serrata Ko has been spotted with some lesser Sith. After the cruiser embarked, there was a brief hallway conversation between Serrata and Simone.

A female hutt, inexplicably force active, made contact with the party. It appears that she is many things — somehow force active, has been trained a little by Marona Kasra, willing to help the Rogues and is especially interested in making contact with Russo; and is also Skrump’s daughter. The rogues witnessed her able to move through crowds largely unnoticed thanks to a force ability that seems to encourage others around her to overlook her.

The rogues used some time in the shipboard taverns to try to discredit the new slave cyborg soldiers — while at the same time studying some of the marketing material provided by the Skrump organization to the passengers and prospective customers.

The source of the slaves is shrouded in mystery — they are not a race that anyone recognizes, and the assumption is that they come from a distant outer rim world, and they are a primitive race being harvested by slavers in Skrump’s employ. There are none of the slaves on the Cruise ship — the group of customers are being taken to another system where the slaves will be demonstrated.

And that’s where the session ended - -two days into a three-day journey to the undisclosed demonstration site at the beginning of a three-day journey to the undisclosed demonstration site. (retconned by GM)

Cash earned: NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
Cargo on the Ample bounty was lost when the ship was captured

Sometimes burning really is the right answer.

The Rogues were asked by their protector and benefactor Nagan Jatha to investigate an attack on one of his gun deals.

The parties involved appeared to be the local Evocaii resistance cell, a gang of Gamorrean mercs called the Bloody Dozen, and (after discovering his involvement thanks to a very lucky guess), a Hutt crime kingpin called Skrump the Hutt.

The high points:

The rogues tried to make contact with the Evocaii resistance to gather information.

Mutual mistrust led to a firefight, a little thermal grenade action, and a lot of dead evocaii.

Sneaking around and spying on the Evocaii gave the rogues the chance to try to convince them that they were in the employ of a hutt kingpin, — chose at random from area hutt kingpins.

The guess turned out to be right, as the conversations with the resistance went on — and it has become clear that Skrump is involved in the attempt to drive Jatha out of business.

After returning to Jatha and with most of the stolen guns recovered, Jatha has demanded that the Rogues find a way to make Skrump pay.

Also, going on in the background on this session, the Ample Bounty has been sold off at auction from the impound, purchased by Guata Trahl, star of the Hutt holonet sensation, “Flip My Trip” – a show about buying distressed starships and refurbishing them quickly for a profit. Several episodes have aired, and the rogues have watched the rennovations going on to the bounty.

Cash earned: NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
Cargo on the Ample bounty was lost when the ship was captured

Badly wounded, with a few Rogues incapacitated, the Rogues discovered that the Ample Bounty had been impounded by inspector Taerm. They sough refuge in an unlikely place — their former (betrayed) employer Nagan Jatha.

Jatha has relocated Nar Shaddaa after being driven off Wayland. Jatha lost power on Wayland after being betrayed by the Rogues, and moved his operation here. He is struggling to make his arms business work here. where the Hutt seem to have every advantage. The arrival of the Rogues badly in need of help has returned a prodigal resource he badly needs again.

A few weeks pass as the Rogues recover from their wounds…..

Cash earned: NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
Cargo on the Ample bounty was lost when the ship was captured

Does Anyone Really Like Jordan Almonds?

(sorry this is not as detailed as usual)

The Rogues set off on the hunt for the remaining pieces of the Null Array. They traveled to Nar Shaddaa looking for a former jedi named Marona Kasra.

On Nar Shaddaa the Rogues managed to draw Kasra’s interest, and they were invited to an Evocii wedding. There, they met and talked to her, but the sudden arrival of Fandutton, Sith apprentices, and War Droids has thrown everything into disarray.

Cash earned: NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
1 milk crate of assorted small arms from the weapon lockup at Jazz’s Cantina
(2 light slugthrower pistols, 1 heavy slugthrower, 1 blaster pistol with a damaged sight (-1 to hit), 1 laser pistol, 1 homemade gyrojet pistol loaded with rocket rounds (expect it to break on a trait roll of 1), no spare ammunition for any of these weapons)

The Rogues had some time at rest, drifting in the nebula near the Null while working on repairs on the Rapid Descent, much less dire repairs on the Ample Bounty, and their own healing after some intense fighting. This took several days, but their last adversaries in the region, the Red Mist pirates that the rogues believe are still outside the nebula seem unwilling to risk entering the storm, and are apparently content to wait for the Rogues or the Greens to come out into the open.

The rogues had time for longer conversations with Terew Itenah, the leader of the pilgrims who had come to the Nebula, seeking the null in the first place. Itenah was able to explain to the rogues in greater detail the belief that had brought them here, seeking the null and the secrets at it’s center. This, combined with other curiosity about what might be at the center of the null pushed the rogues to make a foray down into the null to see what was down there. (Read more about those Grellacian Revelations — there are key secrets revealed there, including the involvement of an old adversary….)

The initial descent into the null led the group past a nest of Harpooners, essentially truck-sized space slugs with the ability to harpoon and reel in targets. Making their way past that threat, they continued down to the surface of an asteroid — large enough to support a thin atmosphere, made up of jagged crystal and in the midst of a small plateau the home of a long-abandoned temple.

The temple appeared to be a sort of grecian affair, with columns at the corners holding up a roof over a marble platform. At the center of the platform was a dais, on which sat an altar with an empty socket that appeared to once hold a relic of some great importance.

The temple itself appeared to have been left this way centuries ago, but it had clearly been visited recently. An obvious new development was several lines of uninsulated wire which connected to a black box sitting outside the temple. Behind the temple was a sort of stylized oriental dragon statue.

While trying to investigate the team was attacked by some sort of plasma elementals that were drawn to them, but that also seemed to power the black box when they encountered the wires. After defeating the elementals, the rogues discovered that the black box was a sort of beacon, that was now sending a signal out into space — and it also contained a holo-recording. In that recording they saw their old nemesis Fandutton, speaking to Itenah, gloating about having arrived at the temple before the pilgrims did, and insincerely apologizing for the threats that he had left behind to make sure Itenah did not escape alive.

That woke up the dragon, and also summoned up a dozen ghostly zombie children that attacked the party.

After barely defeating that threat, the rogues took one last look around at the temple and the altar. Studying the place they determined that their two artifacts — Vengor’s Charm and The Alva Focus, were part of this device — and there must be three other parts. They believe that Fandutton has one already, and the other two are still lost, but probably somewhere in the region.

That left just their final escape from the null, which involved being reeled back in by the long monofilament cable that had lowered them down to the temple in the first place. On the way up they were pursued by a couple of starship-sized monstrosities that had also woken up with the temple’s black box came alive. Back on the bounty, the rogues were able to drive off the beasts and limp away to safety. And that’s where we ended it.

*
Cash earned:* NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
1 milk crate of assorted small arms from the weapon lockup at Jazz’s Cantina
(2 light slugthrower pistols, 1 heavy slugthrower, 1 blaster pistol with a damaged sight (-1 to hit), 1 laser pistol, 1 homemade gyrojet pistol loaded with rocket rounds (expect it to break on a trait roll of 1), no spare ammunition for any of these weapons)

The Ample Bounty had been captured by the Poisonous Slave, a Transdoshan Pirate/salvage ship that they had come up against in the Neya Nebula. Reeled in by the Slave’s tractor beam, they had been boarded but managed to fight off the first wave of Transdoshans and soldier droids.

During the standoff that followed, the Rogues bound their wounds and tried to come up with a plan to secure their escape. It was clear that the tractor beam needed to be disabled, but that would require either slicing the ship’s systems or blowing up the emitter — both of which would mean fighting or sneaking off the Ample Bounty.

As they debated plans (or, as Goggins “Goggy” Crowder said, “trying to find the clean end of the turd”), they felt the Slave’s engines engage, and knew the Slave was under way. A few minutes later the ship stopped again, and based on the distance they could have traveled they were certain that the Slave could not have left the Nebula, but it could have reached the Null.

Which became clear when the blast door enclosing the salvage bay (in which the Slave had enclosed the captured Bounty) opened, revealing that the Transdoshan captain had piloted the Slave around to point the exit of the salvage by directly into the null — so that if the Bounty managed to escape, that would send them right into the null and certain doom.

Unphased by the dismal prospects, the Rogues charged off the ship in an effort to hold ground long enough to allow Simone and Ridaf time to hack into the ship’s computer network and disable the tractor beam.

The Trandoshans had pulled back in the salvage bay, leaving only a squad of droids behind to fight the Rogues — but they also had remote-operated lasers built into the walls of the bay, and those made the scene exceptionally deadly for the Rogues.

The Rogues managed to cover Simone and Ridaf long enough for those two to disable the Tractor beam — but Tir and Yaziro were incapacitated in the fighting. While trying to re-board the Bounty, the Rogues had to deal with the loss of pressure in the salvage bay, which nearly sucked Yaziro’s unconscious body out into the null, but he was caught by Goggy and saved at the last moment.

Tir, having been healed by Simone upon getting back on board the Bounty, managed to race into the cockpit and pulled off a tricky maneuver that allowed the bounty to escape from the Slave’s salvage bay at an angle that allowed them to avoid entering the Null so deeply they couldn’t escape.

Simone got Yaziro conscious again with her force healing, and Yaziro joined Tir in the cockpit for what came next — a replay of the starship battle between the Bounty and the Slave.

This time, however, Yaziro’s deft piloting and some good shooting by Simone (who took over the Bounty’s guns), the Bounty was able to defeat the larger ship.

With the Transdoshan ship exploding behind them, the Rogues returned to the Rapid Descent, still derelict near the void, and rejoined the Rakshasans and Pilgrims for some deep space rest, repairs, and healing.

They’re still in the Nebula, still close to the null, and they can only assume that the Red Mist ship that was prowling outside the Nebula is still there. But for the time being, they could breathe a little easier.

While working on repairs and trying to figure out what’s next, the team decided to experiment to see if P5 would be able to operate within the null. They placed him in the Pilgrim’s capsule and sent it into the null. P5 did power down while in the null, but an eerie light glowed inside the capsule. A little experimentation and investigation revealed that it was the Artifact that P5 wears, Vengor’s Charm.

And with that, the session ended.

*
Cash earned:* NoneGoods Purchased: NoneCurrent Party Funds: $5,850

Current Cargo:
1 milk crate of assorted small arms from the weapon lockup at Jazz’s Cantina
(2 light slugthrower pistols, 1 heavy slugthrower, 1 blaster pistol with a damaged sight (-1 to hit), 1 laser pistol, 1 homemade gyrojet pistol loaded with rocket rounds (expect it to break on a trait roll of 1), no spare ammunition for any of these weapons)